According to Amsive’s SEO Strategy lead, even if clicks decline, the visitors who do land on websites will likely be more aware, better informed and readier to convert
Welcome back to SEO Confidential, the column where I unleash my curiosity to reveal the future of search (yes, there is a future, just a different one from the search you knew) and retire the old SEO clichés for good.
In the previous episode I had the pleasure of chatting with Dan Petrovic; if you missed it, I recommend catching up.
For this third episode, I invited another heavyweight. A name that, if you spend even a little time in the SEO universe, will surely ring a bell: Lily Ray.
For the few (yes, I see you, back there) who might be wondering “Lily who?”, we are talking about the SEO Strategy Director at Amsive, a data-driven performance marketing agency — someone who, when she talks about algorithms, E-E-A-T (or whatever it will be called tomorrow), and future apocalypses of online search, makes the whole SEO world stop and listen.
I have been following her for ages (you will have noticed from my articles), and getting to exchange a few words with her… well, it’s a breath of fresh air.
Her focus is surgical: she analyzes how Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode are redefining organic visibility, traffic distribution and, above all, the transparency of performance data.
With a highly analytical approach and a strong critical spirit, Lily fights for the interests of publishers, content creators and SEO professionals in the generative AI era.
If you follow her on LinkedIn and X, you know she doesn’t mince words:
in her posts she highlights how Google’s AI Mode tends to keep traffic within its own ecosystem, and she denounces the lack of tracking of these clicks in analytics data, stressing how this opacity is a serious problem for anyone doing SEO.
Well, in our conversation I asked for her take on all of these topics, especially the monsters under the bed of every SEO and digital entrepreneur: AI Overviews, AI Mode and the spectral, looming, menacing (but is it really?) era of “zero-click search”.
Oh yes, because after Google I/O 2025, it is clear that Search as we knew it is dead and buried, so hearing the views of industry experts like Lily is pure oxygen.
Without further ado, here is our exclusive interview. Enjoy the read!
“Being mentioned in AIOs, with the right sentiment, will be essential: less volume for sure, but more potential conversions”
AI Overviews (AIOs) reduce organic traffic, particularly informational traffic — that seems well established by now. Is this the beginning of the zero-click era, or is the reality more nuanced?
Yes, I believe the trend of “zero-click” searches, which has already been growing for many years, will continue to increase with Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode. That said, the value of traffic will also change, as website visitors become more qualified: they may be more likely to find your site/business after doing in-depth research. With AI Mode personalization and large language models handling much of the discovery process, it is possible to imagine that the higher-quality, more engaged, higher-converting visitors will be the ones who reach your website.
Google claims that AIOs deliver quality clicks, but many authoritative studies (such as the one by Ahrefs) point to a drop in CTR and conversions. Who is right, and why isn’t Google transparent about AI Overview (AIO) data in Search Console?
It is impossible to answer this question precisely because Google does not provide direct AI Overview data in Search Console or Analytics. However, my impression is that the studies are more accurate than Google’s statements, given the number of studies that have confirmed the drop in traffic with AIOs. This is also what you would expect from this product, since the answers are provided directly in the AI Overview, which would obviously lead to fewer clicks. I believe Google is not entirely transparent on this point because it does not want site owners and publishers to be able to understand how much these products actually affect their traffic.
If presence in AIOs is crucial, how can it be monetized without direct clicks? What concrete, measurable strategies can be used to turn AIO mentions into leads or sales?
Being mentioned in AI Overviews will be essential for many businesses, and how you monetize this will depend on your business model. For example, being mentioned as a great SEO agency by an AI Overview or AI Mode answer will be valuable for the SEO agencies mentioned. Making sure your brand and your products and services are not only findable and visible in AIO mentions, but also that the sentiment around your services is perceived as positive, will be essential for generating new business.
Will Google, with AI Mode, become a chatbot that replaces AIOs, or will the two systems coexist? Does Google intend to turn itself into a chatbot, despite the denials?
We don’t know the answers yet, but if you connect the dots, it looks like Google wants to push many more users to start their searches with AI Mode. That said, it is not yet clear whether Google will be able to monetize AI Mode and AI Overviews as well as it does with Search. So I believe the situation is still evolving.
AI Overviews pull information from the web for their answers without paying anything to the creators of that content — citing them, of course, but in practice diverting traffic away from websites. Should some kind of financial agreement be reached for the use of this content?
Yes, I think that would be a much fairer application of this product than how it works now.
Why should a blog owner keep creating content for Google? At least before, they got advertising and traffic. Now they risk working for free for Big G. Won’t this impoverish the web of original, critical voices?
I believe this is a big risk. But we have to do everything we can to capture visibility and “attention” across all the different platforms where users might search for or discover your content.
If content creators are no longer incentivized to create, where will AI and LLMs get their information? Doesn’t this risk leading to increasingly outdated information, or am I missing something?
Yes, I believe this is a major risk. There needs to be an incentive for content creators to keep producing high-quality content. I hope Google and other platforms continue to explore methods for including links to external websites, and I hope these tools evolve to do more in this direction in the future.
Lily Ray’s take: less passing traffic, more customers who know exactly what they want
Did you read Ray’s answers?
Direct, clear-eyed, no beating around the bush.
The message, if you read between the lines, is a mix of realism and cautious — very cautious — optimism.
Zero-click?
Yes, it’s a reality we have to reckon with.
Let’s not dance around it.
Convenience wins, and if Google serves the answer straight to your face, why would you bother clicking? Makes sense, right?
Declining traffic?
Likely — in some ways inevitable, especially for those who lived off purely informational content.
Google stalling on AIO data in Search Console?
A classic: when there’s a fortress (and ad revenue) to protect, transparency becomes optional.
But, as Lily points out, whoever reaches your site through this ever-narrowing funnel doesn’t get there by accident, like an indecisive tourist lost in the historic center of Florence.
Often they get there because they want to buy a product, not to wander around aimlessly.
Fewer browsers, fewer time-wasters, more people who have already done their screening, who know exactly what they want and, perhaps, have their credit card in hand.
Less volume, more quality.
A mantra we have been repeating for years, and one that might now become reality.
Interesting, right?
Now, the point is: what do we do with this information? Cry conspiracy against Big G?
A sterile choice, believe me.
The truth, as is often the case, is that there is no silver bullet.
There is strategy, adaptation, experience.
Lily says it herself: being mentioned in AIOs, with the right sentiment, will be essential.
And that is not something you improvise.
It requires painstaking work on your authority, on the perceived and actual quality of your content, on your online reputation.
The kind of work we have been doing here for a while, and with a certain expertise, helping our clients become that authoritative voice that Google — and users — want to hear.
Will the web grow poorer?
Will creators throw in the towel, tired of serving as free feed for AI?
Million-dollar questions.
We will write the answer ourselves, day after day, with our choices, with our ability to innovate and find new ways to capture attention and, above all, to convert it.
Let me say it plainly: Search as we know it no longer exists.
It’s not a funeral, but a genetic transformation imposed by the unstoppable advance of Artificial Intelligence. AI Overviews, AI Mode and the pre-packaged answers from Gemini are the new face, the new voice. A seductive, almost mesmerizing efficiency.
The old art of exploring sources gives way to synthesis served on a silver platter.
Convenient, undoubtedly.
But the risk is that this convenience sterilizes curiosity and thins out the plurality of voices that made the web a forest to explore, not a pre-arranged garden.
Google, in its innovative drive, becomes both referee and player, deciding what to know and how.
And this is where the new frontier opens up: SEO will have to learn the language of AI, not just that of humans.
Visibility will be won through the ability to be perceived as a primary, authoritative source by the Artificial Intelligence itself.
The real test for brands (and for us SEOs) will be winning the attention — and the “trust” — of these powerful new intermediaries.
It’s a necessary adaptation, a new form of excellence to cultivate.
See you next episode, and may the SERP be with you. (And with me, obviously).
#avantitutta
